(OTTAWA) Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino released new guidelines Monday on the use of “bare cells” to prevent inmates from bringing contraband into federal prisons.
Posted at 2:18 p.m.
Prisoners suspected of concealing contraband items, such as drugs, in their bodies are held in a cell with no sanitation facilities on the assumption that all items will be expelled.
This ministerial directive to the Correctional Service of Canada requires prisons to provide written justification when inmates are held in such cells for more than two days.
She also asks that the service take into account the “physical and mental well-being” of offenders when assessing this justification.
In this year’s budget, the federal government banned the practice for women suspected of carrying contraband in their vaginas, in response to a Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruling last year that found the illegal practice.
However, several people, including Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger, condemned the use of bare cells for any prisoner as being too restrictive and demeaning.
Mr. Mendicino’s directive requires that written notice and justification be provided to regional headquarters when a prisoner is expected to be in a bare cell for more than 48 hours, and to national headquarters when the stay exceeds 72 hours.
The directive further specifies that detainees should be provided with adequate bedding, nutritious food, clothing and toiletries.
Mr. Zinger noted in his 2020 annual report that three days is too long, writing that in his view, “beyond 72 hours, there can be no other reason or justification for detaining or withholding a person in such private conditions”, and “after three days, this procedure surely becomes unreasonable, even strictly punitive”.
At the time, the Correctional Service of Canada rejected that recommendation, saying some people could avoid having a bowel movement longer than that.